not enough living on the outside

If you like Wilco or Uncle Tupelo, you must get Son Volt‘s first album Trace.
Heh. If the 1990 me ever met the 2005 me and discovered that I’d become a fan of alt.country, I think I’d kick me in the nuts. Goddamn know-it-all 18 year-olds.

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51 thoughts on “not enough living on the outside”

  1. it’s a natural thing…discovering different musical forms as you mature…it gives you a whole new world to explore…thank god any youthful limits i may have had have been blown away…i am now free to embrace the musical past…and anticipate what is yet to come.

  10. I had no idea you were into alt.country — before I moved into the world of Hollywood, I was part of that whole scene; my family’s still working musicians in the genre. I even wrote an article for /No Depression/ once.
    Good taste, man. Now we’ve got to move you up to Buddy Miller, Jim Lauderdale, Kasey Chambers…

  11. Hush CJ. Everyone knows all the best poker players are into alt.country. 😉
    I hear ya Wil…I feel the same way sometimes. My musical tastes tend to change quite a bit over time. I listen to stuff now that I used to really like and wonder what I was thinking…
    Thanks for the recommendation; going to have to check them out.

  12. My God…10 years later and I still can’t get “Drown” out of my head. Now I gotta rummage through my stacks for it before I go nuts. Thanks, Wil.

  15. Wil,
    I’m pretty clueless about alt.country, but if you like Son Volt, you should try My Morning Jacket. Kind of a similar sound, but not too similar. More like a cross between Son Volt and Mazzy Star.

  16. My music tastes haven’t changed since I was 18, and I’m about the same age as you Wil.
    I’m a bit more open to new stuff than I was, and I like a lot of older stuff that I never used to like when I was younger, but I still yearn for the old days of music sometimes.
    I think my 18 year old self would embrace me and invite me out to pick up women at a bar/club!

  17. Don’t you hate it when your computer freezes and you end up posting something twice because you think it didn’t register!
    Moron!

  18. I think that the 18 year old versions of most of us have been part of why alt.country or Americana or whatever you want to call it has become sort of an underground sensation rather than obvious popularity. I think we’re all kind of trying to figure out how to “come out” as a fan of anything that might have a country twang in it anywhere. As much as we’d all like to believe we’re rugged individualists who dance to the beat of our own drummers, we all, on some level, still wait to see some indication that something is popular before jumping onto the bandwagon.

  20. It’s funny, I started listening to Wilco based on a review of YHF here. I recently picked up used copies of A Ghost is Born and AM. Ghost is still growing on me, AM was full on favorite the first time I listened to it. I had to have more so I did some research and picked up Uncle Tupelo’s No Depression and Son Volt’s Trace last Friday.
    Much listening happiness this weekend.

  22. I agree with Banfennid. Kasey Chambers is the bomb-diggity! Wil, Wilco is great. . . Uncle Tupelo is classic . . . Jeff Buckley rocks, also Ryan Adams old band, Whiskeytown, now those guys are just solid all around! Also, check out Shelter Belt http://www.beltcave.com They are a local band out of Nebraska (I was the drummer in the band’s first incarnation about 8 years ago). Their sound has grown and it is ecclectic, but some of their stuff if right down this alley.

  24. I shall materialize into such so that when you next see me I will be unrecognizeable as something completely unlike myself and more like a…Grapefruit.

  26. ok so this has nothing to do with anything in this post BUT…you look AWESOME with pink hair!! but you got to stop dying man! it sucks when ur characters die! ok thats all. just wanted to let you know.
    -Cara

  27. Ow. I am pained that you didn’t have ‘Trace’… one of my all time favorites. I listened to that about a billion times… still listening. ‘May the wind take your troubles away…’
    Once I decided it was okay to like the country, I got hooked on The Derailers. They do some great Honky Tonk, which has the benefit of being danceable. 😉 Saw them at Duffy’s in Nebraska… yes, I admit it.

  28. What a great band. A friend of mine drug me to an Uncle Tupelo concert ages ago, after they broke up I followed Sun Volt for a bit even saw them once or twice. Great album. I may have to go grab it and play it, its been a while.
    I’ve always been a fan of many different music styles. If you haven’t listened to them, give the Reverend Horton Heat a spin. Psychobilly at its best. 🙂

  29. I second the Gillian Welch recommendation, as she’s one of my top-three favorites. I’m as big an Alt-Country geek as you’re likely to find, though I lean toward the acoustic side of things.
    And if you like Gillian Welch, or in general soulful music with a country flavor, check out Patty Griffin’s debut CD, Living With Ghosts. It’s absurdly good.
    Also: Townes Van Zandt.
    Also: Ryan Adams, _Heartbreaker_.
    Also: Whiskeytown.
    So what’s with all the Nebraska people on here? That seems kind of strange. I’m from Lincoln, myself.

  30. Wil
    Funny you should mention that. I just picked up the newly released Austin City Limits Concert of Son Volt and can’t stop listening/watching to it. Just AMAZING! Additionaly a great public radio station here in NYC that plays a great deal of Alt Country during the day especially is WFUV and it streams online as well. http://www.wfuv.org. Check it out, you won’t regret it.

  31. – On the country side, Caitlin Cary [formerly of Whiskeytown] just put out an incredible album of duets with Thad Cockrell [for me… Ryan Adams’ closest competitor]. The album is called Begonias, and breaks my heart every time I hear it.
    Also: only 5 years ago I was one of those people who says ‘I listen to everything but rap and country” then I found Neko Case, and now I buy the rock, rap, and country music for a record chain… funny the way things work out. This comic hangs on my office door and scares away the snobs…

  32. I love reading your alt.country self-discovery. I did the exact same thing five years ago after hearing Ryan Adams’ “Heartbreaker” for the first time: picked up Whiskeytown, Son Volt, the Jayhawks, every Wilco I didn’t have… it’s fun, isn’t it? I highly recommend adding Califone to your collection. It’s a little weirder than most of the other stuff I (and others) have mentioned, but it’s good weird.

  33. these are all fine artists/bands people have been mentioning, but if we’re making recommendations, then i’ve got to throw my two cents in and say the geraldine fibbers. some of their songs are rock-leanin’ rather than country-leaning’–regardless, they are damn good. i highly, highly recommend their album “what part of get thee gone don’t you understand?”
    i’m embarrassed to say that i sang along to “drown” for months before i realized the actual lyrics are “what goes wrong you’re CAUSING IT,” not “you’re CAR’S IN IT.”

  35. heh I was blogging about musical taste the other day.. and the fact that I was once a music snob
    now I listen to talk radio so my ears don’t explode daily

  36. Here’s another alt.country rising star for you to check out- Paul Thorn (http://www.paulthorn.com/) He has a touch of everything- blues, gospel, country, the occasional white trash tinged lyrics, and a few songs that could break your heart. A good place to start is his newest album “Are You With Me?”, but for the full effect of his tremedous live show, check out “Live at Short Street”. There are loads of sound clips on his website, I’d bet the bank you’ll love it.

  38. I think if the 1990 me met me now I’d kick myslef in the nuts too for all manner of crappy mistakes!
    Great website, I am just starting to read “Just a Geek” too.
    Ted.

  39. So you’re up late, cruising the comments section, cause hey what’s the point of putting it here right? I’m not normally a commentor but my wife is out of town and I’m a little bored. So you found trace and think you’ve gone alt-country. Me too… that way I could feel cool without trying to understand all the sub genres of “emo.” I bought Trace a year ago on my way up to see my mom who lives in Port Townsend north of Seattle, dark cold islands facing out into an unforgiving ocean. I listened to it about 100 times… that’s me, nothing in moderation.
    Anyway, I see the usual cast of recommendations here (Wiskeytown, Jeff Buckley, Gillian Welch… what guys no Bright Eyes? Conor Orberst is the new Ryan Adams… didn’t that memo get out?) along with a little pimpin’ which is all good right? Fight the good fight. So here is a little something for you out of the ordinary.
    “Neutral Milk Hotel” has only one real album “in the aeroplane over the sea.” Pitchfork ranked it the forth best album of the 90’s. It is all the vision of Jeff Mangum, a guy who after this album gave it all up to make Bulgarian folk music. He doesn’t have the best voice and his arrangements aren’t going to freak you out with their complexity, but I suspect if you listen to him at the right time it will haunt you. To make the point we’ll start with some lyrics from track 8, “Oh comely”.
    “Oh comely/
    I will be with you when you lose your breath/
    Chasing the only meaningful memory you thought you had left/
    With some pretty bright and bubbly terrible scene/
    That was doing her thing on your chest/
    But oh comely /
    It isn’t as pretty as you’d like to guess/
    In your memory you’re drunk on your automy/
    It doesn’t mean anything at all/
    Oh comely/
    All of your friends are letting you blow/
    Bristling and ugly/
    Bursting with fruits falling out from the holes/
    Of some pretty bright and bubbly friend /
    You could need to say comforting things in your ear/
    But oh comely /
    There isn’t such one friend that you could find here/
    Standing next to me/
    He’s only my enemy /
    I’ll crush him with everything I own/
    Say what you want to say/
    Hang for your hollow ways/
    Moving your mouth to pull out all your miracles aimed for me”
    To really understand you have to listen to what he does with it so I posted an mp3 at http://www.coffeedog.com/temp/08 Oh Comely.mp3.
    And if you are still curious you can read this Pitchfork interview http://pitchforkmedia.com/interviews/n/neutral-milk-hotel-02/. It will make you feel like “where have I been” as all good reviews of bands you’ve not listened to do.
    Well, that should kill some time (it certainly did for me writing it). But if you like that and really want to see if we are on the same wave-length check out a writer named Breece D’J Pancake. Wrote one book of short stories circa 1979 then took himself out of the picture at the age of 26 with a shotgun.
    Goodnight Wil’s online persona.
    Erik

  40. Neutral Milk Hotel.. I agree. One of my favourite albums.
    Also the Decemberists.. took the NMH sound and made it a little more friendly.

  41. I just recently got into country music myself and I’m a even bit younger than you, Wil.
    Maybe it’s an age thing… I suspect it has something to do with having a family of your own and becoming more independant from your peers. Back when I was 18, I would have never even given country a chance.
    Oh, and Son Volt also has a new album out, titled “Okemah And The Melody Of Riot”. It’s quite good, albeit a bit different from “Trace”.

  42. I just recently got into country music myself and I’m a even bit younger than you, Wil.
    Maybe it’s an age thing… I suspect it has something to do with having a family of your own and becoming more independant from your peers. Back when I was 18, I would have never even given country a chance.
    Oh, and Son Volt also has a new album out, titled “Okemah And The Melody Of Riot”. It’s quite good, albeit a bit different from “Trace”.

  43. You have to listen to Hayseed Dixie. its not your normal country music. Its a tongue in cheek glimpse at rock songs done up country style. Their website is: http://www.texasmusiccds.com/Hayseed_Dixie.htm. Also, if you order from the site directly the band gets more money than if you bought it from a store. Also, a interview with the founding member can be read here:
    http://www.guitar.com/cda/ColumnCorner/article_display.aspx?CodaID=794949.
    I am not affiliated with the band.

  45. Sheesh, your 18 year old self was mean!! If he kicked you in the nuts I say b*tch slap him and tell him not to be so close-minded.
    punk kids… *lol*

  48. Hey Wil
    From the looks of this post, sounds like you’re a lot more “seasoned” than you were when you were 18. Enjoy it while it lasts!
    Adam

  50. If you are into alt country you have to listen to Slim Cessnas Auto Club. They are unlike anything you have ever heard. Country for the warped nerds out there. Brilliant….and they put on an amazing live show!!!

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